Pension spat between ex-wife and common-law spouse of deceased businessman could go to Supreme Court

WINDSOR, Ont. — An epic battle over a successful Windsor businessman’s $1.5 million pension benefit between his long-time wife and the common-law spouse he was living with when he died could be headed to Canada’s highest court.

A decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal last week awarded the pension death benefit to Ron Carrigan’s wife of 35 years, Melodee, and their two daughters. It overturned a lower court decision by a Windsor judge who ruled the benefit should go to his common-law wife of more than eight years, Jennifer Quinn.

Quinn’s legal team has already served notice it plans to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, said Rodney Godard, one of the Windsor lawyers representing Melodee Carrigan.

“I think the dilemma here was each side thought that they were so obviously right that we could never reach a point where we could reach a compromise and divvy it up in an acceptable fashion. So it became an all-or-nothing contest, which is unfortunate,” Godard said. “It took a long time and cost a lot of money.”

One detail that seems undisputed in the tangled legal drama is that Ron Carrigan was close to both women right up to his death. By all accounts given when he died suddenly at the age of 57 in 2008 he was generous, good-hearted and had a passion for life. He was an avid boater whose treasured 23-foot Doral was towed along in his funeral procession.

He made a good living as part owner and vice-president of finance for Windsor-based commercial electrical wholesale company Electrozad, where he began working in 1977.

In some of the years just prior to his death his income tax returns showed he was earning more than $1 million, say court documents, though he was more than $500,000 in debt when he died. Neither his wife nor Quinn knew about this debt while he was alive.

The other loose end in his personal finances was the lack of a written directive stating if any of his assets should go to Quinn when he died. His will, made in 1986, left the bulk of his estate to his wife as his executor and the rest to his daughters.

It remained in effect after Ron Carrigan moved out of the matrimonial home to live with Quinn, whom he met in 1996 and also worked for Electrozad. The two eventually moved into a condominium not far from the Carrigans’ LaSalle house. Both the house and the condominium were owned jointly by Ron and Melodee Carrigan.

The Carrigans’ separation was “unusual,” Windsor Superior Court Justice Mary Jo Nolan wrote in her decision. They went on celebrating Christmas together at the house with their daughters and grandchildren. Ron Carrigan came and went as he wished to the house, for which he still had a key. Melodee Carrigan, a hairdresser by trade, continued to cut her husband’s hair once a month. He paid all her expenses as he had when they lived together. They were “best friends,” Melodee told The Star in an interview shortly after he died.

According to court documents, in 2006 the Carrigans discussed transferring Melodee’s interest in the condominium to Quinn and having Ron designate Quinn the beneficiary of a $100,000 life insurance policy. Neither ever happened.

“In the several anxious days at the hospital after his heart attack and before his death, in the immediate aftermath of his death and at the funeral, both of these women appeared to act with grace and dignity and treated each other with respect,” Nolan wrote in her decision handed down in 2011. “Regrettably, this was short lived. The relationship soured when the issue of money reared its ugly head.”

And the only money left to fight about was the death benefit from Ron Carrigan’s pension plan at Electrozad. In 2002, he had designated Melodee Carrigan and their two daughters as the beneficiaries and indicated that the name of his spouse was “not available.”

Nolan’s interpretation of the Ontario Pension Benefits Act was that since Quinn had lived with Ron Carrigan for more than three years she was his common-law wife and that the Carrigans’ marriage was effectively over. Therefore, in Nolan’s interpretation of the legislation, Quinn was entitled to the pension benefit.

That ruling was overturned last week when two Ontario Appeal Court judges interpreted the legislation differently and concluded Melodee Carrigan and her daughters, as the designated beneficiaries, are entitled to the pension benefit. One appeal court judge agreed with Nolan.

Much of the ink in the lengthy decisions revolves around whether Ron Carrigan had two wives and how that affected who would get his death benefit.

It’s the first time a legal battle has been waged over the issue in the circumstances of the Carrigan case, Godard said.

He wouldn’t say how much the lengthy court battle has cost so far, but regardless of how long it goes on there will still be a substantial portion of Carrigan’s death benefit left for his loved ones, he said.